DISMANTLING SIDE MIRRORS

[RobbieMac]

Hi

Can anyone help me? The driver side mirror on my '94 Terrano does not adjust properly, the one on my '91 spare parts Terrano is good. The housings are different but the mirror glass is the the same - and I assume the mechanics for the electrical adjustment inside the housing is the same. I would like to change over the inside bits form the 91 to the housing on the 94 but... how do I get inside that housing to get to anything? I have the main housing off the pivot for folding and I have removed a screw from underneath, about half way along the underside of the housing but nothing is coming loose. Can anyone help me with what to do next please? Most appreciated, cheers, Rob.

[Terranovation]

Is it electrical? What I did was pry the glass off the plastic holder, underneath that is a round plastic thing, held on with a c clip. You push on the back of it from memory and then the c clip can be removed. But be careful because there's a little spring thing on it which can go flying. With a bit of prying you can get a screwdriver in and undo the four screws holding it on. There's four in each corner. I ended up cutting holes through the mirror plastic so I could get to the screws.

[Terranovation]

Just to verify, the round plastic thing held on with the c clip is directly in the middle behind the glass. So you'll have to remove the glass. Just use a flat screwdriver and take care.

[Slartibartfast]

I tore down one of my mirrors after removing it, but as it was already broken, I wasn't terribly careful with disassembly. I seem to remember prying the glass out (didn't break it though). I'm not sure it was the exact same unit as yours--IIRC the pivot didn't give until I had the mechanism out and tore the little clippy thing out that held the pivot down. I did save the mechanism, because it seemed like it might be useful for something, and here's what it looks like:

 

I suspect I pried the glass and heater element off of the black plastic, away from the white greasy glue stuff that held it on, then undid the screw in the middle of the black plastic bit. That releases the center pivot point for the black plastic bit, leaving only the two screwy bits holding it to the power unit. They have ball ends and you can push them out from the front of the black piece (there are two little slots that you can jam a screwdriver through, hot glued over on mine for some reason). With that off, it looks like you should just have four screws holding the white plastic gearbox in, and then the wires to deal with (I cut the black plastic to free them, probably because I couldn't get the pivot apart/didn't intend to put it back together).

 

One of the plastic screw-with-a-ball-end bits on mine had broken off right at the ball, so be careful with those bits, they could be a little fragile. Probably best to disassemble the one that doesn't work first.

 

Good luck!

 

Edit: looks like there are a few different styles of these!

Edited September 29, 2014 by Slartibartfast

[RobbieMac]

Thanks for your help Slartibartfast and Terranovation. Still not sure what I'll do. I undid the four bolts holding the whole thing in the housing using a bent phillips head screwdriver to get in behind the glass, so it's now loose in the housing I now realise that the glass is also slightly different between models - and somewhat smaller on the '94. Maybe I'll just put up with it as is: it swings in and out but not up and down. Still curious about where to start prising to remove the glass. 'So you'll have to remove the glass. Just use a flat screwdriver and take care'. As easy as that sounds? - have just tried with 3 small screwdrivers and cracked the glass: the plastic that holds the glass is quite hard and almost impossible to prise away at the corners. Nothing lost to wreck the glass completely when I get back to it tomorrw!